Money On My Mind in June and July

After the last 2 months of focusing on implementing more pleasant things in my life, June became one of self-induced stress. I had a nightmare for the first time in a long time, I hadn't been as enthusiastic about much, and I started biting my nails again. After only a week into June, my motivation for this theme was weaning, but I knew that I needed to set some long-term financial goals, make a plan to reach those goals (including the math), stick to a budget, track where my money was going, and learn what I should be doing.

Before implementing a plan, I felt as though the focus on money was too much for me. Finance is still not my strong suit and I would much rather spend more time doing just about anything else, but I got better. What really helped the most was rediscovering Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, his free app called Every Dollar, The Minimalists’ blog post on financial freedom (there is also a related podcast), and The Financial Diet on YouTube. (See links below) These inspired me to start asking myself some surprisingly tough questions and be honest with myself.

"Where is my money going right now?" 

I used the previous month in the Every Dollar app to see what my budget would have looked like had I planned to spend my money the way it was spent. Ouch. I spent way more on eating out and on miscellaneous items than I would like to admit. I couldn't even be one hundred percent honest with my husband about what I was spending money on. 

"Are there better ways I could have spent it?"

For the actual month of July, I intentionally put each dollar somewhere using Ryan Nicodemus' “Need, Want, Like” system. I need to pay my bills and put money away in an emergency fund. I want to continue taking a weekly belly dance class. I like having extra money for food and random stuff. Figuring out what my priorities actually are was surprisingly challenging, but even more so was sticking to the budget I laid out. 

"Could I do something now that would greatly help my future-self?"

Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps start off with putting away $1,000 into an emergency fund, so that when an emergency happens there isn't a financial crisis at the same time. The next step is to pay off your debts using the debt snowball. By paying off your smallest debts first, you get a feeling of achievement as you work on tackling the larger ones. For me, these included my fancy cell phone and credit card debt (that we used to pay for moving expenses). The 3rd Baby Step is to bump up your emergency fund to include three to six months worth of expenses. This would be great if you lost your job for example. The next is to invest in your retirement. If someone in their early twenties put away even a little bit today, with compound interest over the years it would greatly multiply. Steps 5, 6, and 7 don't quite apply to me since I don't have children to save college funds for, I don't have a mortgage since we rent, and I'm not financially ready to contribute beyond myself yet.

After talking with the financial advisor at my credit union, I decided to open a Roth IRA (aka retirement account paid post-taxes) once I got together my $1000 emergency fund. If all goes as planned, I will have the money by the end of the year and can open the account in January. I haven't talked about this with my husband yet since he thinks my emergency fund is a silly idea. I also did some math to see what it would cost me monthly to save up for a newer car over the next 5 years. Where my current budget stands, saving up for a car wouldn't be easy, but it would be doable. Future me would love to pay cash for a newer Toyota Corolla.

"What do I do when I want something, but it's not within the budget?"

As I learned more about my spending habits, I started wondering why I wanted certain things. New makeup is a good example of this. I have plenty of makeup, but I was watching YouTube makeup tutorials almost daily and wanting more. In an effort to combat this, I stopped wearing makeup most days, stopped watching makeup tutorials, and saved links to thinks I thought I wanted. The latter of these worked surprisingly well. I found that I didn’t have as strong as an impulse to buy things and didn’t feel as though I would miss out on it if I saved it somewhere. This lead to taking photos of things I found in person, which in turn led to an epiphany:

I don’t have to own it just because I like it…

While I know this journey isn’t over just because June is over, I did not expect this theme to overflow and mix well into July where I was trying to focus on Intentionality and Minimalism. Seeing as a theme of intentionality pertains to being intentional with your money, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.

Hope y'all have an amazing week!

Links:
Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (ex: Videos)
Every Dollar app = EveryDollar.com 
The Minimalist's blog post on "Financial Freedom" and related podcast
The Financial Diet website and YouTube channel

PS. If you are young and just starting a line of credit like me, take Dave Ramsey's advice with a grain of salt. Think twice about cutting up your credit card. Instead use it to only pay bills that you know you have money for and already have to pay. I currently use mine for gasoline only.

Minimalist Haul & Shopping Intentionally

Within the No Waste movement there is an important lesson on shopping intentionally that I think is important to discuss. After depositing my paycheck and making a credit card payment at the bank, I decided to finally go buy jeans. My jeans tend to wear down on the inner thighs since I do lots of walking. My first thoughts we to go to Academy or Old Navy, but then I remembered that I could probably find decent jeans for a heck of a lot cheaper at a thrift store.

Rule #1 : Buy secondhand whenever possible.

According to Google Maps I was 1 mile away from the nearest thrift store called Savers, which looks a lot like Goodwill. On the inside, the housewares and such are to the left and the clothing to the right. I wandered through the aisles and came across a shovel (which is on our To-Buy List for scooping dog poop) and a wok (which would solve the problem of not having a large enough pot to use when cooking on the stove). They were $3 and $6 respectively. Obviously, the shovel is a bit broken, but my husband said he would never need it to actually dig any holes so it's perfect.

As a bit of a packrat, it can be difficult not to just buy something purely because I like it. That's why you should know what you need before you ever go to a store. My memory is not the greatest, so I use shopping lists religiously.

Rule #2 : Know what you need.

The hard part is when you start walking around is see things you hadn't thought about or don't need. If you can stick to your guns and not buy impulsively, then go you. For example, I entered Savers with the intention of buying jeans and still ended up spending almost $30. Had I purchased "wants" as well as "needs" then it could have been worse.

Rule #3 : Take a picture of the "wants."

The 2 main items that I found that I would have loved to purchase (but don't need) included a classy set of dishes and a chips and dip serving dish. This sort of pattern on the dishes is one of my favorites and it even matches the shower curtain from the tiny house I lived in when I was in college. On the other end of the spectrum style-wise, there was an adorable chips and dip serving dish that was shaped like a swimming pool with a diving board and hot tub.

Maybe it's because I'm a millennial, but I love taking photos of everything. It was not until I tried sticking to a shopping list in an effort to save money that I realized photos could serve another purpose. By taking photos of the things I wanted and didn't need, I could live vicariously through the next person who would own it. This method also works if you go out to eat and your food or drink looks cute, fancy, or interesting.

Rule #4 : Give yourself time. 

If you leave the store that day and spend the next couple days or weeks regretting not purchasing the item, then that's when I believe it is worth considering going back to buy it. Keep in mind that these are "wants" not "needs."

The last of my five rules is only in regards to clothing and comes from going through and downsizing my wardrobe many times. In my opinion, the only clothing that you should keep are only those that fit well, fit comfortably, are within your personal sense of style, and are items you will wear more than once. If you have to make alterations or keep fidgeting with it, then you probably won't wear it much.

Rule #5 : Only buy clothes that you love.

I'm so glad that I was able to find a pair of black jeans, a structured black skirt, a shovel, and a wok today. Even though I only went in looking for jeans that I can wear casually and can wear to work, I have also been wanting a black skirt and needed a couple other items that I had not expected to find at Savers today. I'm also pretty happy that as an added bonus there are built-in shorts under the skirt (AKA skort?). Gotta enjoy the little things.

If you are looking for ways to try and save money, I hope my trial and error methods can help you when you next try and resist the temptations of straying from your shopping list.

Minimalism & Finding Your Personal Style

Has anyone else seen these "capsule wardrobes" trending online? Minimalism and being creative with a small number of pieces is apparently really in at the moment. All you have to do is take a peek and you will see the plethora of blogs like Un-Fancy.com and StyleBee.ca and the tiny houses everywhere to notice the fashion/lifestyle trend.

But is simple better? It surprisingly seems like it.

It's 2017 and we have too much space and even more stuff to fill it with. More and more people are choosing to get rid of most of their belongings and narrowing everything down to the bare basics. I can definitely see the appeal when I look around my house and my mom's house. She is a fellow pack-rat and has been moving all of the extra clutter every time she moves. In this way I really don't want to follow in her footsteps, so I have been working up the determination to start. Starting small is (almost) always key. This for me was going through my wardrobe of mainly t-shirts, jeans, yoga pants, and men's basketball shorts.

Decluttering my huge wardrobe has been a process and after several sessions and around 8 trash bags later, I still feel like it's not compact enough and what i do have doesn't have any real style. I had never noticed the style aspect until the other day when I added 1 of those bags of clothes to donate after watching @MuchelleB talk about the Konmari way of decluttering and her personal minimalist lifestyle and advice.

MuchelleB talked about having the same issue with finding a personal style, especially since minimalism has come to reference a certain aesthetic and not the actual lifestyle. What she decided was to pick a color scheme of things she knew looked good on her and then went from there to see if the pieces that she already owns brings her joy or not (the konmari way).

StyleBee had an interesting post on defining your personal style, so I'm going to see how she would say I should describe my style.

Blog Post

Workbook pdf

STEP 1: ASSESS (Describing the Good and the Not-So-Good)

A) How do you feel when you are wearing a look you really love?

- Put Together

- Comfortable
- Cute/Classy/Chic (depending)
- Confident
- Attractive

B) How do you feel when you have worn something you don't love?
- Awkward
- Uncomfortable
- Average/Boring
- Regretful

STEP 2: SORT (Isolate the DOs and DON'Ts of your style)

A) Write down all of the things you don't like to wear and don't consider your style.
- Button-Downs
- Anything that shows too much cleavage
- Collared Shirts
- Itchy Fabrics
- Anything I have to worry about after leaving the house

B) Write down all the things you do like to wear and do consider your style.
- Figure-flattering/Tailored at the waist or under bust
- Scoop Necks
- Three Quarter Sleeves
- Layers
- Tights under dresses and structured shorts

STEP 3: GET REAL (Identify your lifestyle and what you dress for)

A) What activities do you do most? How do you dress for them?
- Drive / Shoes that I can feel the pedal through
-Take Walks & Exercise / Comfortable Clothes and Shoes
- Work / Professional Clothes and Black Heels, Comfortable Clothes and Shoes
- Lounge around at Home / Tank Tops, Loose Shorts, and PJ Pants

B) How does the weather impact your style? What is your typical mode of transportation?
- Hot Weather = Tank Top and Shorts
- Cold Weather = Layers, Warm Socks, Thick Jacket or Coat
- I usually drive my car everywhere
- Sometimes I fly via airplane

STEP 4: EXAMINE (Recognize the specifics from looks you love)

A) List your top 10-20 most worn items.
- Knee-Length Dresses
- Tights
- Cardigans/Sweaters
- Jeans (Pants & Shorts)
- T-Shirts
- Tank Tops
- Flowy Pants (it looks a lot like a floor-length skirt)
- Sneakers
- Flip-Flops
- Black Heels

B) List your 3 Go-To Outfits/Silhouettes.
- Dress, Tights, Cardigan, Heels
- Fitted Top, Flowy/Loose-Fitting Bottoms
- Fitted Top, Jeans/Shorts, Sneakers, Cardigan/Sweater

STEP 5: DEFINE (Put your personal style into words)

A) Write down all the key words and phrase you can think of that accurately apply to your style. (Get that Thesaurus out!)
- Monochromatic AKA Mostly black with some jewel tones
- Bohemian-Inspired
- Gothic-Inspired
- Classic/Timeless
- City Chic
- Modest
- Layers
-Relaxed
- Grunge

B) Finally, Pull the 3-5 words that really resonate with you the most. These will be your personal style definition!

MY PERSONAL STYLE IS:

COMFORTABLE  LAYERS  CITY CHIC  MONOCHROMATIC  TIMELESS

Hopefully this helps someone else out there that's trying to put their style or desired style into words. I'm going to see how I like these descriptions over time, if it helps when I go shopping, and if it helps narrow down my desired wardrobe further.

Have an awesome week!

PS.
This is more for me, but if you would also like to learn more then here are some other minimalist blogs:
Be More With Less
Rowdy Kittens
Anuschka Rees and her post 10 Step Wardrobe Revamp

Cladwell by Into Mind app ($5/month)

Other Good Reads:
"The Crossroads of Should and Must"
"What Else?"
"14 Newsletters You Need in Your Inbox"